I´m in Iquitos!
hi,`just to let you know I am in Iquitos safe- It was a mission getting here but we made it in the end, 3 flights and a lot of waiting around later. American airlines was great. Iquitos is as central in the amazon jungle as it is possible. It seems quite a big, busy city, about 30,000 people I think. Everyone rides honda 125´s converted into these rickshaw trike things. This is also the only city in the world not accessible by road!
My hands are blue where the deet fly repellant has melted the plastic on my water bottle. The humidity and heat are stifling. We had lunch looking over the edge of the sidewalk that drops down into the jungle, with huge vultures just flying about really close over the vegetation, and parrots in the trees.
We´d only been here for about 5 minutes and we were filmed for the local TV!! This raft race is a big deal out here!! They´re setting up a stage for a big welcome party tonight. We picked out own hand painted limited addition paddles for the race, mine has a piranha painted on it. These paddles are made from only one kind of wood, from a tree (whose name I forget) translates as meaning "paddle wood". We went by a hardware store to get supplies- machetes, a hammer, axe, foam pads and big screws All the stuff only came to about 20 quid!. We went to see Mad Mick, an english guy who originally set up the raft race. He gave us some good tips and advise and swapped us the foam pads for oxo cubes and fishing flies that we brought out for him.
Tomorrow we have the day free to do some sightseeing and then we build the raft on thursday. I think thats about it for now!! Apologies if it seems a bit disjointed, my brain is a bit fried from the time lag and humidity (it was monday for a very long time on the way here!!)
My hands are blue where the deet fly repellant has melted the plastic on my water bottle. The humidity and heat are stifling. We had lunch looking over the edge of the sidewalk that drops down into the jungle, with huge vultures just flying about really close over the vegetation, and parrots in the trees.
We´d only been here for about 5 minutes and we were filmed for the local TV!! This raft race is a big deal out here!! They´re setting up a stage for a big welcome party tonight. We picked out own hand painted limited addition paddles for the race, mine has a piranha painted on it. These paddles are made from only one kind of wood, from a tree (whose name I forget) translates as meaning "paddle wood". We went by a hardware store to get supplies- machetes, a hammer, axe, foam pads and big screws All the stuff only came to about 20 quid!. We went to see Mad Mick, an english guy who originally set up the raft race. He gave us some good tips and advise and swapped us the foam pads for oxo cubes and fishing flies that we brought out for him.
Tomorrow we have the day free to do some sightseeing and then we build the raft on thursday. I think thats about it for now!! Apologies if it seems a bit disjointed, my brain is a bit fried from the time lag and humidity (it was monday for a very long time on the way here!!)
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posted by Grace at 12:51 am
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